I've been trying to come up with a witty and philosophically unambiguous ending for this semester of blogging. For days now, I've let the potential closings percolate in my head, like a crock pot full of words instead of soup. I realize that that is a strange analogy, but these days most of my ideas come from food. That is even stranger since this blog is supposed to be about politics. But food can blend with just about anything, right?
I have had plenty of fodder to work with this semester: the amazing election season, the hilarity that is Sarah Palin (she never fails to amuse), the very interesting turmoil that comes with a president-in-waiting behind a president that gets shoes thrown at him (and, as I heard on the radio today, some sheik from Saudi Arabia wants to pay about $10 million for those shoes). This just proves a few things: (1) politics will always be fun to write about when there are funny politicians out there as bait; (2) even though the election season is over, I can still attempt secret car wars with those who have "Allen for Senate" or "Say it 'aint so, Joe" stickers hanging limply on their back bumpers; and (3) I should have said much more about the ridiculousness that is politics in this semester's blogs.
Maybe because I was so downright scared of what might have happened this election season, I didn't find the humor that is out there, but if I do tackle politics in the future, I think that would be my goal: because if we can't laugh at the horrendous state our country is in (economy, global warming, wars on two fronts, wars on civil rights, attacks on those who are just sick and tired of the politics of the holidays, and so on).
Will there be a next time around? Probably so. I'm sure I'll rekindle blog writing next fall, as I will be taking this spring off from ENG 112. Potential topics might include: the environment; 70s and 80s easy listening; historical fiction (what's so fictional about it, really?); addiction to the Food Network; or a plethora of other manageable topics. I have a few months, so I'll marinate on that for the time being.
Ciao! (Or chow!, as you like it.) See you at the inauguration parade...
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Could Blogging Have Stopped WW2?
Check out this article from the Associated Press and published on the Huffington Post: "Nobel Prize Winner: Blogs Might Have Stopped Hitler." In this short post, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio suggests that the free-flow of information could have prevented WW2.
Do you agree?
Why WW2 and not the genocide in Darfur? The Russia-Georgia aggression? The U.S. foreclosure/bank crises?
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Another Political Corruption Case?
It's not so hard to believe: as my quasi-sister-in-law reminded me a few months ago, Chicago wasn't called the windy city because of the weather. Rather, it was because Chicago politicians are all full of hot, corrupted air. Today, we learned that Democratic Governor (and under investigation long before today) Rod Blagojevich (pronounced Bleh-goya-vich) was arrested today because of charges of "scheming to enrich himself by selling Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a lucrative job for himself. In excerpts released by prosecutors, Blagojevich snarls profanities, makes threats and demands and allegedly concocts a rich variety of schemes for profiting from his appointment of a new senator" (Associated Press, 2008). What's frightening about Blagojevich's profanity-laced tirade unleashed on anybody who wouldn't pay him for the senate seat is the boldness (or inanity) of his actions.
Of course, we've seen this before. Even today, Larry Craig, the Republican senator from Idaho, lost the appeal of his disorderly conduct charge relating to his "wide stance" gay-sex solicitation charge stemming from a vicarious visit to a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport bathroom stall (Orr, 2008). Then there is Ted Stevens, another U.S. Senator, who was convicted of concealing home-improvement gifts and who was just convicted in the last two months, right before he lost his senate seat to Anchorage's mayor, Mark Begich.
Is it that senatorial and U.S. gubernatorial jobs attract criminals? Maybe, but probably not any more so than any other job that has power and influence attached to it. Rachel Maddow, on her December 8th MSNBC show, pointed out that in 1993, the Chicago Sun-Times happily (or relievingly) reported that in the previous 12 months, there hadn't been a Chicago alderman who was convicted (or charged) with a crime. There are petty criminals everywhere. Governor Blagojevich was in the right place (Illinois government) at a very strange time, a time when a senator like Barack Obama had recently gotten elected and around the same time performed amazingly at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. As Obama's star was on the rise, Blagojevich's was on the wane. In the last few years, he has been in trouble for everything from land deals to family feuds. The hope of ending Illinois corruption (the previous governor, George Ryan, was also convicted of corruption and is serving time in federal prison), doesn't seem to have been broken by Obama's good fortune.
But there is a point to most of this: that even those who are most corrupt in U.S. politics can also do some good in their time in office. Ryan passed a moratorium on the death penalty; Blagojevich attempted to pass a law that would force pharmacists to honor all prescriptions regardless of personal position. Even Larry Craig promoted a balanced federal budget (unfortunately, this was on the only positive thing I could find in his record). Finally, Ted Stevens is pro-choice. The point is is that corrupt politicians are mainly people who, even if we agree with them on some issues, have come to our attention for trying to work around a system that they were elected to support. It's as bad as Pete Rose betting on baseball, as bad as grandma's overly dry pot roast. It's what we expect of politicians, and it's why Americans might so ambivalent about politics.
Let's hope with the election of Barack Obama (I'm crossing my fingers here) that we see a new turn toward ethical political reform, not only in the White House (I've yet to mention the legal problems with the last two holders of that office), but spread across U.S. politics as a whole. Don't hold your breath but, instead, make sure your representatives are holding up their end of the bargain: representing us instead of trying to rip us off. The first thing you can do is contact your local state and U.S. Representatives. Check their records. Contact them. And if all else fails, don't vote for an incumbent whose track record makes you blush.
References Cited
Associated Press. (2008). Illinois Governor's Words "Beyond Greed." MSNBC.com Retrieved December 9, 2008, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28148126/
O'Connor, Matt, and Rudolph Bush. (2006, April 16). Ryan Convicted in Corruption Trial:
Co-defendant Warner also guilty. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 8, 2008, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060417ryantrial,0,4525779.story
Orr, Jimmy. (2008). Senator Larry Craig Loses Airport Bathroom Misconduct Appeal. ChristianScienceMonitor.com Retrieved December 9, 2008, from http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/12/09/senator-larry-craig-loses-airport-bathroom-misconduct-appeal/
Of course, we've seen this before. Even today, Larry Craig, the Republican senator from Idaho, lost the appeal of his disorderly conduct charge relating to his "wide stance" gay-sex solicitation charge stemming from a vicarious visit to a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport bathroom stall (Orr, 2008). Then there is Ted Stevens, another U.S. Senator, who was convicted of concealing home-improvement gifts and who was just convicted in the last two months, right before he lost his senate seat to Anchorage's mayor, Mark Begich.
Is it that senatorial and U.S. gubernatorial jobs attract criminals? Maybe, but probably not any more so than any other job that has power and influence attached to it. Rachel Maddow, on her December 8th MSNBC show, pointed out that in 1993, the Chicago Sun-Times happily (or relievingly) reported that in the previous 12 months, there hadn't been a Chicago alderman who was convicted (or charged) with a crime. There are petty criminals everywhere. Governor Blagojevich was in the right place (Illinois government) at a very strange time, a time when a senator like Barack Obama had recently gotten elected and around the same time performed amazingly at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. As Obama's star was on the rise, Blagojevich's was on the wane. In the last few years, he has been in trouble for everything from land deals to family feuds. The hope of ending Illinois corruption (the previous governor, George Ryan, was also convicted of corruption and is serving time in federal prison), doesn't seem to have been broken by Obama's good fortune.
But there is a point to most of this: that even those who are most corrupt in U.S. politics can also do some good in their time in office. Ryan passed a moratorium on the death penalty; Blagojevich attempted to pass a law that would force pharmacists to honor all prescriptions regardless of personal position. Even Larry Craig promoted a balanced federal budget (unfortunately, this was on the only positive thing I could find in his record). Finally, Ted Stevens is pro-choice. The point is is that corrupt politicians are mainly people who, even if we agree with them on some issues, have come to our attention for trying to work around a system that they were elected to support. It's as bad as Pete Rose betting on baseball, as bad as grandma's overly dry pot roast. It's what we expect of politicians, and it's why Americans might so ambivalent about politics.
Let's hope with the election of Barack Obama (I'm crossing my fingers here) that we see a new turn toward ethical political reform, not only in the White House (I've yet to mention the legal problems with the last two holders of that office), but spread across U.S. politics as a whole. Don't hold your breath but, instead, make sure your representatives are holding up their end of the bargain: representing us instead of trying to rip us off. The first thing you can do is contact your local state and U.S. Representatives. Check their records. Contact them. And if all else fails, don't vote for an incumbent whose track record makes you blush.
References Cited
Associated Press. (2008). Illinois Governor's Words "Beyond Greed." MSNBC.com Retrieved December 9, 2008, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28148126/
O'Connor, Matt, and Rudolph Bush. (2006, April 16). Ryan Convicted in Corruption Trial:
Co-defendant Warner also guilty. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 8, 2008, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060417ryantrial,0,4525779.story
Orr, Jimmy. (2008). Senator Larry Craig Loses Airport Bathroom Misconduct Appeal. ChristianScienceMonitor.com Retrieved December 9, 2008, from http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/12/09/senator-larry-craig-loses-airport-bathroom-misconduct-appeal/
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Salam Pax links
Hi Everybody,
Check these out:
1. Salam Pax's original blog at tinyplanet.org/iraqblog
2. "Shut up, you fat whiner!" at justzipit.blogspot.com
3. Salam Pax for The Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/salampax
4. An article by Slate journalist Peter Maass: http://www.slate.com/id/2083847/
5. Salam Pax's new blog at http://salampax.wordpress.com/
And this quote, from Salam Pax and published on The Guardian's website, in the article "I Became the Profane Pervert Arab Blogger":
Check these out:
1. Salam Pax's original blog at tinyplanet.org/iraqblog
2. "Shut up, you fat whiner!" at justzipit.blogspot.com
3. Salam Pax for The Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/salampax
4. An article by Slate journalist Peter Maass: http://www.slate.com/id/2083847/
5. Salam Pax's new blog at http://salampax.wordpress.com/
And this quote, from Salam Pax and published on The Guardian's website, in the article "I Became the Profane Pervert Arab Blogger":
My name is Salam Pax and I am addicted to blogs. Some people watch daytime soaps, I follow blogs. I follow the hyperlinks on the blogs I read. I travel through the web guided by bloggers. I get wrapped up in the plots narrated by them. I was reading so many blogs I had to assign weekdays for each bunch, plus the ones I was reading daily. It is slightly voyeuristic, especially those really personal blogs: day-to-day, mundane stuff which is actually fascinating; glimpses of lives so different, and so much amazing writing. No politics, just people's lives. How they deal with pain or grief, how they share their happy moments with anybody who cares to read.
And I cared. We had no access to satellite TV, and magazines had to be smuggled into the country. Through blogs I could take a peek at a different world. Satellite TV and the web were on Saddam's list of things that will corrupt you. Having a satellite dish was punishable with jail and a hefty fine because these channels would twist our minds and make us do bad things. They spread immoral values. Of course he and his buddies were incorruptible so they could watch all the satellite TV they wanted.
"A" Complete Guide to Blogging?
Check out this link on Amazon.com about Ariana Huffington and company's new book: The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. For homework this week, read the first chapter (just scroll down the page a bit). Would this information help a newbie jump into blogging?
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Check This Out: Worst Blogs?
Hey Gang,
Check out this list by JP Raphael at PC World magazine: do you agree about the 11 "lamest" blogs on the net? Did any of those blogs come up in your "Worst Blog" search?
Julie
Check out this list by JP Raphael at PC World magazine: do you agree about the 11 "lamest" blogs on the net? Did any of those blogs come up in your "Worst Blog" search?
Julie
Staying Focused
In the course of my blog writing (this semester on politics), I've had an easier time staying focused on my previous topics. Those were: politics (fun, during the midterm elections), finances (pretty interesting), the dissertation (absolutely horrible experience, will never write about writing again!), home improvement (harder to write about and stay motivated than it seems), and, finally, back to politics, which is a topic that makes me wonder, sometimes, why I didn't major in political science.
So I played hooky last week: I didn't post a thing. I kept thinking that I could come around to it, that something political would strike me: the Franken/Coleman recount (according to the Huffington Post, the difference is now down to 13 votes out of 2.9 million); the Martin/Chambliss revote (the polls close tonight at 7 p.m.); the Obama cabinet; even the big bailout(s); there's plenty of fodder out there.
So why am I having so much trouble this semester? I guess it amounts to what everybody else in this class is dealing with: when one juggles classes, grading, dissertation, husband's new job, husband's surgery on Friday, dogs, planning the Christmas Iditarod (our drive to Colorado), and so on, it seems as if politics has been put on the back burner. I mean, Obama won, right? I have finally had the opportunity to relax, something that I didn't think would happen since the midterm elections when everything ramped up.
Here's something that has been bugging me, and it's probably not worthy of a full-length blog post, but it's about post-election hypocrisy: Politicos around this great nation seem to be changing their colors. I have been expecting Keith Olbermann to put George W. Bush at the top of his "Best People in the World" this week because he finally owned up to it, saying that, as you can see here in the article from the LA Times, "Bush tells ABC News: 'I was unprepared for war'." Next thing you know, Bill O'Reilly will be stating that it's a good thing there is separation of church and state. No, wait, he just said that this week. That wasn't his opinion 5 years ago. Give kudos to Olbermann again, who pointed this out on Countdown. This week, O'Reilly stated that he was "a secular guy." Just a few years ago, here's what O'Reilly said: "These antichristian zealots talking Judeo-Christian philosophy today reject that honor. But in reality, they are cowards. They hide behind the bogus separation of church and state argument to batter any public displays they find offensive. Led by the ACLU and aided by secular judges the anti-Christian Americans are insulting and denigrating a key part of America." I expect by next year both O'Reilly and Bush might join the American Atheists, but that might be an insult to my husband, a proud atheist. To see O'Reilly vilified by Olbermann, check out this link:
So it seems as if the next month and a half will be absolute mayhem: some politicians will be falling off the radar (let's hope that's Sarah Palin, Larry Craig, Fred Thompson, Michelle Bachmann, Rudy Guiliani, and even Bill Clinton) while others will be making appearances for the first time. And the pundits will continue to harrass and harangue. I'm looking forward to learning more about Ron Paul, though, because I get the feeling he won't be going away any time soon. He's like Ross Perot on steroids, which isn't a bad thing, now is it?
So I played hooky last week: I didn't post a thing. I kept thinking that I could come around to it, that something political would strike me: the Franken/Coleman recount (according to the Huffington Post, the difference is now down to 13 votes out of 2.9 million); the Martin/Chambliss revote (the polls close tonight at 7 p.m.); the Obama cabinet; even the big bailout(s); there's plenty of fodder out there.
So why am I having so much trouble this semester? I guess it amounts to what everybody else in this class is dealing with: when one juggles classes, grading, dissertation, husband's new job, husband's surgery on Friday, dogs, planning the Christmas Iditarod (our drive to Colorado), and so on, it seems as if politics has been put on the back burner. I mean, Obama won, right? I have finally had the opportunity to relax, something that I didn't think would happen since the midterm elections when everything ramped up.
Here's something that has been bugging me, and it's probably not worthy of a full-length blog post, but it's about post-election hypocrisy: Politicos around this great nation seem to be changing their colors. I have been expecting Keith Olbermann to put George W. Bush at the top of his "Best People in the World" this week because he finally owned up to it, saying that, as you can see here in the article from the LA Times, "Bush tells ABC News: 'I was unprepared for war'." Next thing you know, Bill O'Reilly will be stating that it's a good thing there is separation of church and state. No, wait, he just said that this week. That wasn't his opinion 5 years ago. Give kudos to Olbermann again, who pointed this out on Countdown. This week, O'Reilly stated that he was "a secular guy." Just a few years ago, here's what O'Reilly said: "These antichristian zealots talking Judeo-Christian philosophy today reject that honor. But in reality, they are cowards. They hide behind the bogus separation of church and state argument to batter any public displays they find offensive. Led by the ACLU and aided by secular judges the anti-Christian Americans are insulting and denigrating a key part of America." I expect by next year both O'Reilly and Bush might join the American Atheists, but that might be an insult to my husband, a proud atheist. To see O'Reilly vilified by Olbermann, check out this link:
So it seems as if the next month and a half will be absolute mayhem: some politicians will be falling off the radar (let's hope that's Sarah Palin, Larry Craig, Fred Thompson, Michelle Bachmann, Rudy Guiliani, and even Bill Clinton) while others will be making appearances for the first time. And the pundits will continue to harrass and harangue. I'm looking forward to learning more about Ron Paul, though, because I get the feeling he won't be going away any time soon. He's like Ross Perot on steroids, which isn't a bad thing, now is it?
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